


When the boy smiled, all's right with the world

by TheScaredyCat



Category: Ookiku Furikabutte | Big Windup!
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-29
Updated: 2013-11-29
Packaged: 2018-01-03 00:00:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1063251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheScaredyCat/pseuds/TheScaredyCat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of short, connected stories about Kanou and Mihashi's relationship, planned to cover elementary and middle school period. Mostly gen, but probably very light KanoMiha later on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When the boy smiled, all's right with the world

 

 

 

**First meeting**

As a child, Kanou had always drawn the other kids in. At grade four, he was unofficially recognized as the leader of the boys in their school. Kanou didn't mind it. Being leader means being cool, and every boys enjoy being cool. Even if it means the girls stayed away from him for no reason at all. Kanou didn't play with girl anyway.

With boys, on the other hand, Kanou noticed that the cooler he acts, the more they liked him. When he started playing baseball, he asked the his dad, who used to play in high school, to teach him the position he thought was coolest in the game. That is pitcher, of cause, because when he watch the TV, the camera followed the pitcher the most.  
  
Later, Kanou taught baseball to the other kids too, and soon it became a ritual for them to play baseball in the park every evening. They played with sticks as bat, the softball Kanou's dad bought for him and their own rules because these were not enough people for two team.

Kanou met Mihashi on day like that.

That day, one of his friends hit a home run (a home run according to their rule anyway). The ball flew a bit too far back and hit a kid who was sitting on the swing. As the leader, Kanou was the first to ran up to apologize.

“Hey, I'm sorry for that! Are you alright?”

  
The kid was holding his ball with a seemingly scared expression. He was sitting in a hunched position as if trying to make himself smaller. Was Kanou that scary? That's certainly not how someone who just got hit by a ball would act. And while Kanou was grateful that he's not going to get yelled at, this situation was even more worry some. It's as if Kanou was bullying him. And Kanou doesn't bully!

 _Maybe my expression was too scary?_ He wondered. Kanou was used to keep his cool around the other  
kids, but in this situation, he should probably smile.

Putting up his most cheerful face, Kanou tried again, “Hey, I'm sorry about the ball. It wasn't on purpose, really. Are you hurt?”

This time the kid looked up and shook his head so hard Kanou was worried it would fall off. His seemingly cute face made him seem to be even more vulnerable, and Kanou wondered why this kid looked familiar even though he was sure he had never seen him before. As the boy was still holding his ball, Kanou figured he should ask for it back.

“So you are alright? Thank god. Is it okay if I get the ball back?”

This time, the boy hold the ball up to his direction with both hand, his mouth flapping open and close, and he uttered something sounded suspiciously like “can... I”

Taking the ball back, Kanou asked. “Did you just say something?”

The boy shook his head even harder than before.

Kanou sighed. It seem that the kid not hurt, and he had already gotten back the ball, so probably it's okay to go now.

“I gotta go then, see you!” Kanou turned away and was about to run back to his friends, but as he glanced back, he noticed something.

The other boy was tearing up.

Kanou felt horrible.

Was it his doing? Kanou had never done anything to make other kid cry before and he wasn't about to do it now. Running back, he asked, “Hey, why are you crying? Was it actually hurt somewhere? Why didn't you tell me?”

The other boy flinched back and cried even harder. It looked even more like Kanou was bullying him now! Panicking, Kanou looked around, searching for something, anything that can cheer this boy up.

He noticed the ball in his hand.

Walking closer, Kanou rubbed the boy head- what he usually do to comfort his five years old little brother, and murmured. “Look, do you want to play with us? Just don't cry anymore, okay?”

He didn't know it's possible for someone to cheer up so fast.

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

**Introduction**

It turned out, the boy knew the game pretty well, and he made the game a lot more fun. He volunteered to be the opponent pitcher, since most of the other kids liked to be in Kanou's team, and none of them wanted to oppose him. While his pitches seemed weak, he managed to hit the strike zone all the time, which amazed Kanou because even he missed sometime.

It took some tries for Kanou to get out the other boy's name. Mihashi Ren. No wonder he looked so familiar. His face resembled the neighbor girl from the Mihashi family a lot. The weird girl who avoided him like plague. Kanou wondered if Mihashi was so scared of him because of her.  
“So you are another child of the Mihashi? How come I have never seen you before?”  
Mihashi stuttered, “... un-uncle house... I visit ...from Saitama..”

“So you came from Saitama? Cool! How is it like?”

As Mihashi told him about his home town with a sunny smile, Kanou decided it was a good thing his ball hit Mihashi after all.

* * *

 

 

 

 

**Smile**

  
Kanou never thought that he would get along with Mihashi as much as he did. Every time he visit, Kanou would make sure to be there to play with him. Their personality were so different, but Kanou always feel at easy with Mihashi around. The boy was so simple minded, honest to a fault, and dare he say it... really cute. Even cuter than the girls. Probably because the girls in his class never acted cute around him. But more importantly, they both love pitching. Often they would tell each other how they love to pitch, or show off to each other the special pitches they made up which is no different from their normal pitches except for cool name.

Mihashi cried a lot, which frustrated Kanou sometime, but he smiled a lot too. And Mihashi's sunny smile never failed to make Kanou happy, even more so if it's Kanou who made Mihashi smile.

* * *

 

 

 

**Name calling**

Something had been bothering Kanou, but he wasn't sure what it was. As Kanou missed Mihashi's mitt three times in a row, he sighed and walked over the swing.

“Let's take a break, Mihashi. Can you push the swing for me?”

“O-okay, Kanou-kun.”

 _Yeah, that_. Kanou found the problem.

“Hey Mihashi, you don't have to call me so formally like that. It sound as if you are my lackey or something.” _Even more so when you stutter like that,_ he added in his mind.

“B-but, what can I call Kanou-kun th-then?” Mihashi suttered again.

Kanou grinned.“Kanou is okay, Shuugo is even better. You can even call me Shuu if you want!”

“Shuu..Shuu-chan..” Mihashi tried.

“Yeah, that wasn't so hard, was it?” Kanou slapped Mihashi's shoulder.

“Th-then Shuu-chan can call me Ren too!” Mihashi cheered happily.

Yes, it's definitely a good change.

* * *

 

 

 

 

**Boy vs girl**

  
Mihashi was worried. Ruri looked angry. And was staring right at him. It's scary. _Maybe I should hide at Shuu-chan's house until she cooled down?_ He glanced nervously at the door.

Too late. Ruri grabbed his hand. “RenRen, stop playing with Kanou! He's a bad guy, and he would make RenRen bad too!”

Not playing with Shuu-chan? Mihashi almost teared up at the thought. Without Shuu-chan, who could he play baseball with?

“No! Shuu-chan is a g-good person!”

“Look, RenRen, he's bad. This guy at school hid my note, and when I yelled at him, Kanou defended him. He made me look like the bad guy! He defended the bad guy so he is a bad guy too!”

“Noo, Shuu-chan is very nice to me!”

Ruri pouted. “RenRen, me and Kanou, who do you like more?”

Mihashi couldn't held it anymore. He cried. “ hic-I l-ike RuRi, b-but -hic-I like Shuu-chan too …I can't...I w-want to play...”

 “Ren,Are you these? Let's go to the park together!” As if knowing Mihashi was in trouble, Kanou suddently called from the door.

Mihashi immediately stood up, brushed his face with his sleeves and ran off to the door. “Shuu-chan!”

If possible, Ruri hated Kanou even more.

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

**Sick day**

“No RenRen, you can't!”

“B-but, I want to go, I p-promised!”

“Look, you are not going to the park being sick like this. What would auntie say to us?”

In his train to Gunma, the air conditioner was a bit too cold. But Mihashi, being a timid little boy he was, was unable to say anything. And as a result, he got sick.

“I was l-looking forward to it s-so much, in S-Saitama … no Baseball … hic..” Mihashi sobbed pitifully. What if Shuu-chan got mad because he didn't come and wouldn't play baseball with him again?

As Mihashi was still sobbing, his aunt came in and asked “ Ren, what is the problem? Look someone came to see you!” She moved aside, revealing Kanou at the door.

“Ren,just rest, okay? I met Mihashi-san at the convenient store, and she said that you got sick, so I thought I should pay you a visit.” Kanou walked over to sit on the chair at the bedside, which Ruri abandoned the moment he stepped in the room.

“S-Shuu-chan...” Mihashi stuttered.

Grinning, Kanou shoved a bag at Mihashi's chest. “Here, some buns I got from the convenient store. You liked them, right?”

Mihashi immediately smiled with star in his eyes, and Kanou couldn't help but laugh.

If anything other than Baseball can cheer Ren up, it's food.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Note1: It's canonically implied that:  
> -Kanou was the leader of the boys in elementary school  
> -He was hated by the girls in elementary school, including Ruri  
> -He had been formally coached  
> -He has a little brother  
> Everything else was made up by me because there is just not enough information about Kanou.  
> Note 2: The reason Mihashi cried is because he didn't have the courage to ask to play with Kanou. In anime these was a similar flashback of Mihashi crying because he couldn't make new friend.


End file.
